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Supporters, family and friends packed a Nevada County courtroom to witness the swearing in of the county’s newest Superior Court judge Monday afternoon.

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. named Nevada City attorney Linda J. Sloven to the judgeship to fill a vacancy created when Judge Julie McManus officially retired from the bench in July.

Sloven, 58, moved to Nevada County a little more than 12 years ago and has had a private practice primarily representing plaintiffs in employment matters and nursing home neglect and abuse cases.

She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Golden Gate University School of Law, is a member of several federal district courts and state courts of appeal and has served as a board member for legal and community organizations that include the National Lawyers Guild, Nevada County Bar Association, Nevada County Citizens for Choice and Nevada City Schools Foundation.

Superior Court judges Robert Tamietti, B. Scott Thomsen, Candace Heidelberger and Sean Dowling all were on hand to watch as Presiding Judge Tom Anderson administered the oath to Sloven, who joked later that she was shaking as she signed the paperwork.

“I am tremendously honored and humbled at the trust that has been placed in me,” Sloven said, adding, “I promise to always do my best at this job.”

Sloven thanked a number of people, including her deceased parents, her brother, Larry, fiance Rick Wachs, her friends and her two children, Adam and Elena, whom she called her “biggest blessings.”

Sloven will start work Wednesday and will be in Department Two, primarily handling misdemeanor criminal matters, Anderson said.

“She will have a short training period, working with all the judges,” he said. “Then she will graduate into being on her own.”